Devices have become available which run a plurality of applications and receive a plurality of user control signals. For example, devices that include television, Internet, satellite television, personal video recorder (PVR), and digital versatile disk (DVD) applications, among others, controlled by a single operating system such as Windows CE, are known.
The operating systems in such devices receive user signals from a plurality of sources, for example infrared (IR) signals from a remote control device, electronic signals from a front panel assembly (FPA), and other parts of the system. Data is received and processed from the respective IR drivers, FPA drivers, and other parts of the system. Presently available systems assume the keys are intended for the foreground window. However, sometimes the user intends to control a background application, which is not possible with present systems.